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The latest news is that the players from Martin agreed that they would give up on 40% of the money that the club owes them on the condition that the city gives a 100 000 Euro donation to the club that will be used to pay off the rest of the debts towards players. This seems ridiculous to me, why should the city council be giving out money to a private club which will be immediately used to play players. And this solution doesn't do anything with Martin's other debts. It's a shame given the kind of fans Martin has, and the youth/junior teams are also fighting to survive.

As for the inclusion of Detva in the league, that sounds like such a terrible decision. Their stadium is bad, they didn't have good attendance in 1.liga and their president is known for some terrible behavior /which includes intentionally spilling beer on visiting fans among other things/.

25th of June 2015 - Worst day in the history of modern hockey in Slovakia

I haven't had a lot of time to follow the Extraliga this year, but I thought I would provide at least a small statistic update.

After 15 rounds Dukla Trencin tops the table with 39 points. The next cluster of four teams includes Banska Bystrica, Kosice, Zvolen and Poprad who are at around 27-32 points. The next four teams Nove Zamky, Nitra, Zilina and Liptovsky Mikulas are at 19-21 points. The national u20 team is exceeding all expectations so far earning 13 points in 14 games. Dead last is the newcomer Detva who have only managed to earn a measly 1 point in 15 games.

American forward Cason Hohmann from Banska Bystrica currently leads the league scoring with 19 points for 4 goals and 15 assists in 16 games. While Michal Valent from the top team Dukla Trencin leads goalies with a 95.72% saves percentage and a 1.27GAA.

The Slovak top league was known for having very few foreign players when you exclude the players from neighbouring Czech republic. Recent seasons have seen an influx of North American players and the nationalities became much more diverse.

D-man Martin Gernat has signed with Kosice in an agreement that should benefit both sides. Kosice have some injury trouble on the D front and Gernat has only played NT games this season so far and would like to play for the NT again during the December NT break and hopes to find an employer in the North of Europe afterwards.

Forward Marek Tvrdon has signed with Zilina. He had started with Nitre prior to the season however he was kicked off the team due to not adhering to the regimen. Afterwards he played for Edibnurgh in EIHL, but he has now asked to be released due to personal reasons hence his signing with Zilina. Sounds like aother talented Slovak player who wased his talent away for now...

25th of June 2015 - Worst day in the history of modern hockey in Slovakia

This is the first game that Trencin has lost on their home ice in 2017. They are still in first place 9 points ahead of Nitra and Kosice who both sit at 47 points, however Nitra have played an extra game.

In other news there won't be a break in the league schedule during the Olympics, despite the fact that it's likely that a few Tipsport Liga players will make Slovakia's roster.

25th of June 2015 - Worst day in the history of modern hockey in Slovakia

Foreigner in Tipsport Liga = a blessing or a curse?

A few years back the only foreigner you would see in the Slovak top league where Czechs with a few exceptions. As mentioned in my first post in this thread, this has changed in recent years. Banska Bystrica has started the trend of bringing North American players, mostly from the ECHL to the league. There was also an increase in the numbers of Swedes or Finns, we even have 4 Latvians in the league this season. Some would say that this has improved the league.

But given that there is no foreigner limit in the league and there are no plans to introduce one AFAIK, the question is at what price to Slovak hockey does this come? We have Trencin topping the table with only one Czech player and Liptovsky Mikulas icing just one Czech as well is doing no worse than the other teams at their level who ice several foreigners. We have the youngsters Paulovic and Kristof leading the league in goals/points, but what about the next generation of youngsters? Is this still the league where Samuel Bucek and Marian Studenic could play as u18 players? This was the best season for the Orange 20 team in its history. There are players who were able to get points regularly . How many of them will be relegated to juniors/1.liga?

Just looking at the results of the last round, 7 out of the 10 teams have played at least with 6 foreigners while for most leagues the foreigner limit usually is at around 5 players. Even worse, while the Czechs are complaining about there being too many Slovak goalies in the Czech Extraliga 6 out of the 10 teams in the Slovak top league started a foreign goalie in the last round.